LONDON — It will
have been an anxious Thursday night for David Cameron.

After making the
case for Britain’s membership in the European Union to about 4
million viewers on ITV on Tuesday night, the prime minister was a
spectator this time as a trio of senior female politicians took to
the stage for Remain in the latest TV debate.

Scottish National
Party leader Nicola Sturgeon, Labour’s Angela Eagle and Tory energy
secretary Amber Rudd came out swinging for the Remain side, but their
opponents from the Leave camp — energy minister Andrea Leadsom,
Labour MP Gisela Stuart, and Boris Johnson — gave as good as they
got.

One of a succession
of big TV events planned before the June 23 vote, the ITV broadcast
was the first to use a conventional debate format, with politicians
from both sides arguing directly with each other. It was long and
hot-tempered, and left the referendum outcome looking harder than
ever to call. Here are 5 takeaways:

1. Brexit buoyed

This was a clear win
for Leave. Expect a blizzard of action from Downing Street in the
coming days as they try to get back on the front foot.

In the Brexit
corner, Johnson, Leadsom and Stuart seemed well-prepared, unified and
composed. They appeared to grow in confidence as the debate wore on,
repeatedly urging voters to “take back control” and ignore the
government’s “miserable” warnings about the dangers of leaving.

Immigration
dominated the early exchanges, setting the tone for the rest of the
debate and leaving the Inners on the back foot.

Led by the combative
Tory minister Rudd, the three Remainers repeatedly attacked Johnson
and the Brexit campaign for spreading “lies,” “falsehoods”
and “pure fantasy,” but failed to land a serious blow on the
economy — their strongest line of attack.

Sturgeon again
proved to be the strongest left-wing voice in British politics, but
it’s unclear how much influence she has south of the border.
Cameron will need to come out all guns blazing in the remaining
debates to undo some of the damage.

2. In the battle of
the slogans, Leave wins with “Take back control”

The Conservative
Party won the last general election by relentlessly pursuing a single
campaign message: that Labour could not be trusted with the economy.
The Remain campaign was supposed to be following the script this time
round, but it appears to be the Brexit camp which has alighted on the
stronger message: taking back control.

Again and again, the
three Outers repeated the catch-all slogan, whether it was debating
the economy, immigration or even, curiously, endangered wildlife.

Labour’s Stuart,
the quietly spoken grandmother, originally from Germany, was
according to some early polls the star of the night. She calmly,
effectively made the case for Britain leaving, urging voters to
believe in themselves. The Bavarian Blairite, who only moved to the
U.K. in the 1970s, said: “I’m an immigrant. I believe in this
country and I wouldn’t dream of talking it down.” It was a potent
message — the European telling the British native there’s nothing
to fear outside the bloc.

3. The rise of Rudd

Rudd, the
Conservative energy secretary, was forceful and passionate on the
Remain side, overshadowing the better-known, more experienced
Sturgeon.

A close ally of
Chancellor George Osborne, Rudd’s profile has been growing
recently, as one of the more media-friendly cabinet ministers making
the case for Britain staying in. Her stock will rise after Thursday
night. Some viewers will have been turned off by her attacks on
Johnson, but in the battle of potential Tory leaders, it was Rudd
that seemed more prime ministerial. “This could be the making of
Rudd,” Tom Bradby, presenter of ITV’s 10 o’clock news bulletin,
tweeted.

4. Boris takes a
battering

In his first live,
prime-time TV performance of the referendum campaign, Johnson was a
marked man. Vote Leave’s most recognizable figure was attacked
directly and repeatedly by the Remainers. “I fear the only number
Boris is interested in is the number 10,” his cabinet colleague
Rudd said early on, and other scripted jibes about Johnson’s
leadership ambitions soon followed.

Eagle: “Boris, you
don’t seem to care about the millions of jobs that will be at risk
if we leave the EU. You only seem to care about one job.”

Sturgeon: “He’s
not interested in your job or anybody else’s job, he’s only
interested in David Cameron’s job.”

Rudd again: “He’s
the life and soul of the party, but he’s not the man you want
driving you home at the end of the evening.”

The taunts drew
laughter from some in the audience, cheers from the political
journalists — but didn’t get a rise from Johnson himself. “I
missed the insult,” he said at one point, brushing off a barb from
Eagle.

The former mayor of
London was unusually subdued by his standards. He stuck to the
script. “Take back control of our democracy,” he argued. “That
is fundamentally what this is all about.”

5. Is Brexit a
right-wing plot?

Remain lost the
debate, but there was one area of attack that may have landed with
some voters.

Not on the economy —
Brexit will make us all poorer was the message voters were supposed
to come away with from Thursday night’s debate but didn’t.
Instead, it was the prospect of Brexit strengthening the right flank
of the Conservative Party — the likes of Michael Gove and Johnson —
that seemed to be Remain’s strongest point of the night.

It was an odd
argument for a fellow Tory to make, but Rudd did. Workers’ rights
were “on the ballot paper,” she said, and would be under threat
in the “little England” vision of the Brexiteers. Public
services, including the NHS, would also be under threat if they had
more power.

Sturgeon and Eagle
agreed. “Whatever you do, do not trust a word Boris Johnson says on
the NHS,” Sturgeon said.